Chapter 586 - 355: Summiting the 7th Layer

Chapter 586: Chapter 355: Summiting the 7th Layer

The tapping of Chen’s finger on the armrest came to a sudden halt. His pupils contracted sharply as he leaned slightly forward.

A wave of irrepressible excitement appeared in his eyes, finally erupting into a low, rumbling laugh that shook the entire circle of Immortals:

"Haha... Excellent! What a man, this Li Wen!"

The two Immortals beside him, Flame Ashes and Ice Soul, were overcome with excitement. The looks they exchanged were filled with immense surprise.

...

The Contestants’ Viewing Area.

Even Barton’s perpetually cold face was now etched with profound shock.

His gaze was fixed on the name ranked second on the leaderboard, a storm churning in the depths of his eyes. Finally, he let out a low grunt:

"...The 7th Layer... Impressive!"

Beneath the shock lay a strong sense of respect.

A look of clear astonishment appeared on Time Shadow’s face yet again.

His silver eyes now shone with utter disbelief.

The lazy, bewitching look on Illusory’s face vanished completely. Her red lips were slightly parted, and the phantasmal light in her eyes flickered rapidly, betraying a deep wariness and shocked disbelief.

’Alka... Li Wen? With the Time Law... he actually reached the 7th Layer?’

She whispered to herself, committing the name from the backwater empire to memory for the first time.

Among the other contestants, a dead silence was followed by a massive uproar.

Gazes filled with shock, doubt, jealousy, and disbelief crisscrossed the area.

’Someone from a fringe empire, a complete unknown, had actually set foot in a realm only Ling Xuzi had ever conquered?’

The shock was no less than a Star Domain exploding.

...

The Alka Empire’s Viewing Area.

For a second, time seemed to stand still.

And then—

"AHHH—!!!!!"

"The 7th Layer! It’s the 7th Layer!!"

"Li Wen! Li Wen made it to the 7th Layer! He’s in second place!!"

A tsunami of cheers, screams, and roars erupted in an instant.

The wave of sound was powerful enough to nearly blow the roof off the viewing area.

Countless Alkans leaped to their feet, tears of joy in their eyes. They wildly hugged those around them, waving anything and everything they could get their hands on.

They had only dared to dream of 23rd place, but reality had delivered an earth-shattering miracle beyond their wildest imaginings, an achievement that would be recorded in the annals of their empire’s history—Second!

The 7th Layer!

Overwhelming ecstasy and excitement washed over everyone. All their previous tension and anxiety vanished, replaced by boundless pride and surging passion!

...

The spectators from other empires, after a moment of collective speechlessness, erupted into a storm of discussion, punctuated by sharp, staggered gasps.

The people from the several high-ranking empires neighboring the Alka Empire, in particular, were in disbelief for a long time.

Was this the same empire of failures they had once commiserated with?

"Someone from the Alka Empire took second place?"

"The 7th Layer! He actually made it to the 7th Layer too?!"

"My gods, another monster has been born! But... an Alkan?!"

A mixture of shock, envy, jealousy, and disbelief filled the air.

As for the spectators who had previously looked on with an air of superiority, some even subtly mocking Li Wen for being a show-off...

...the looks on their faces were now a spectacular sight, a mix of embarrassment and the shock of having been proven so utterly wrong.

...

The pillar of light dissipated.

Li Wen’s figure had already vanished from the 6th Layer.

「The 7th Layer」

When Li Wen’s vision cleared, he found himself looking out into an even more profound void.

Here, the manifestations of the Laws were no longer simple fragments.

Instead, they had coalesced into seven slowly rotating whirlpools of Law, resembling miniature nebulae.

Each vortex radiated a terrifying pressure.

Standing at the entrance, Li Wen felt an unprecedented weight pressing down on him.

Li Wen took a deep breath.

He focused his spirit to sense his surroundings for a moment, then withdrew his probing consciousness.

’It had taken him a full eight months just to barely comprehend the Law fragments on the 6th Layer.’

’The complexity and depth of these seven living vortexes of Law before me are many times greater.’

’He knew full well that with his current aptitude and only a single year remaining, it would be a struggle to comprehend the core of even one of these vortexes, to say nothing of clearing the layer itself.’

"Second place is good enough," he muttered to himself, his gaze clear and resolute.

’Rather than waste my energy on this impossible task,’

’it would be far better to invest this precious year into cultivating my most critical asset: the Time Law.’

He could clearly sense that the aura of the Time Law in this 7th Layer space was dense and pure to an unbelievable degree.

Its clarity and affinity were almost equal to that of the previous six layers combined.

’If I cultivate in seclusion here for a year, my Time Law might just break through to the mid-stage of a Tier One Star Lord!’ A thought flashed through Li Wen’s mind.

Without another moment of hesitation, Li Wen immediately sat down cross-legged. With a single thought, his core skill, [Absolute Focus], activated instantly.

The 230% aptitude bonus kicked in, and his mind sank completely into comprehending the vast Time Law of the 7th Layer.

All the clamor of the outside world—the rankings, the attention—was cast aside.

...

「The Outside World」

On the giant master leaderboard, Li Wen’s rank seemed frozen in place. Day after day, month after month, it remained utterly unchanged.

As time went on and people noticed his rank was static once more, the attention he received plummeted again.

Only a few people were left to discuss him, speculating on how far this dark horse from the Alka Empire could get in the 7th Layer.

But in the end, enthusiasm couldn’t outlast the passage of time.

Inside the central edifice, the gazes of the tens of thousands of Immortals had mostly shifted elsewhere.

Only Chen would still, from time to time, pull up the internal feed that only he could see.

When he saw that Li Wen had indeed completely abandoned any attempt to comprehend the Law vortexes, instead immersing himself fully in the cultivation of the Time Law,

he wasn’t disappointed in the slightest. On the contrary, a flicker of deep appreciation crossed his eyes.

’Good kid! To have the concentration to ignore the gazes of untold billions, to have such a clear understanding of his own path and the courage to make this kind of trade-off... That’s a rare and precious quality!’ Chen praised silently.